DPM Chapter 78
Translated by Snowfall77
The gossip of Liu Meng actually challenging the Night Shard spread quickly. Everyone kept an eye out, wanting to catch the drama, see just how Mozun would deal with this threat.
Contrary to expectations, Mozun was not stingy with Liu Meng, readily teaching him practices. And he let Wu Xingyun school Liu Meng on science and engineering.
But still more surprisingly, in the process of studying, Liu Meng thoroughly exposed his weak point.
Liu Meng himself hadn’t anticipated that he had no talent for cultivation whatsoever.
Despite endless striving day and night, he remained ordinary. Not only did he fail catch up with Mozun’s level, even reaching the mid-level of Mozun’s subordinates was hard to attain.
Although discouraged for a long time, Liu Meng pulled himself together and focused on making full use of his actual talents—an astonishing skill for overall planning and administration.
In order to become capable as soon as possible, he expended great effort into his learning. When he was sixteen years old, Liu Meng had already entered Mozun’s ranks, having officially joined the Demon Army.
With Liu Meng taking charge of all logistics and management, people and territories were handled in an extremely orderly manner.
Never mind that over the years, he’d also grown rapidly physically. No longer the small child, he’d become a young man with a perfect face, like a deity’s masterpiece. With that beauty, paired with his long silver hair, who knew how many people’s hearts he’d provoked?
On his seventeenth birthday alone, more than a dozen people confessed to him, men and women, young and old.
Mozun and Wu Xingyun also attended his birthday party. By that time, the thick Saer fog that blanketed the world had scattered away, though there were still numerous mutant animals. Well-maintained boundaries had been built however, and the city was a very secure area. Gentle and slowly-reproducing plants grew there, while soldiers formed a defensive circle, preventing any monster from invading.
Xi’an was still the center of Mozun’s territory, and where he’d always lived. Although he’d go elsewhere if need be, to provide assistance or settle disputes.
No longer the ruin it had been, Xi’an had been restored to civilization’s standards before the end times. Streets were neatly paved with gravel or cement, the immense city wall towered into the sky, while houses tidily lined up. The hibiscus garden prospered. All of it demonstrating that mutated humanity had made it through the roughest part, and were now able to start developing and expanding.
Liu Meng’s seventeenth birthday banquet was held in the gardens. He had on a smiling expression, sitting like an exquisite statue in the center of the hall, people continuously coming up to congratulate him.
Not at all enthusiastic about everyone crowding in on him, Liu Meng was nevertheless mild and polite. A mutant a year older availed himself of the opportunity to declare his feelings, offering as a token the fangs of a giant python from the seas that he’d killed three months earlier.
Staring blankly as he was put on the spot, Liu Meng was then besieged with the attenders mischievously chanting in unison: “Together! Together!”
Ever helpful, Mozun excitedly joined in: “Together! Together!”
He was twenty-nine now, and years of being at the pinnacle had given him an overpoweringly intimidating aura. And the endless practice, the building of his power, made him emanate danger from head to foot.
Yet now, mingled with the crowd, he seemed like a child joining in on the fun, the grin on his face not much changed from the young man Wu Xingyun had met ten years ago.
When Liu Meng’s gaze suddenly landed on Mozun hugging Wu Xingyun as he enthusiastically called out, the smile on Liu Meng’s face slowly fell away.
He gradually made his way to Mozun, the other people making room.
Facing Mozun, Liu Meng had on a determined yet calm expression. Mozun stopped his chant, now behaving like the elder he was, and told Liu Meng: “That young man is pretty good, a warrior of the new generation. You should seriously consider him.”
Liu Meng gave a slight laugh, not answering. Instead he looked to Wu Xingyun, his eyes filled with mixed unspeakable emotions.
Admiration, longing, adoration, and even reverence.
“Wu Yun,” Liu Meng asked, “Only one more year and I’ll be eighteen. If the Night Shard dies then, will you be brokenhearted?”
Embarrassment rolled over Wu Xingyun. He’d long forgotten Liu Meng’s confession from years before. Considering it as a child’s sentiment, he’d never expected that Liu Meng would still carry it in his heart.
“Mozun will not die,” Wu Xingyun said, “He is immortal.”
“Heh……” Liu Meng smiled and fixed his eyes back on Mozun: “Don’t be too complacent, I’ll turn eighteen soon. At that time……I’ll formally challenge you!”
A great sigh came from the crowd, and those who didn’t know about the past were quickly brought up to speed.
Definitely no one thought highly of Liu Meng’s chances. His strength wasn’t remotely close to Mozun’s level.
Hearsay had it that it took Liu Meng a whole day to just kill an usual mutated animal at the city outskirts. Whereas Mozun’s martial force was ‘divinely appearing and demonically vanishing,’ a fathomless power. It was said he had no rivals on the Earth. Some claimed they’d seen Mozun climb Mount Everest in three minutes, and jumping from there, almost breaking through the atmosphere.
What suspense could there be in such duel?
Liu Meng’s challenge was tantamount to an egg throwing itself against a rock.
Knowing this, Mozun raised an eyebrow, smiling: “Not bad. I’ll wait for it. But you should know, even if you defeat me, you’ll never get what you want.”
Liu Meng’s face flushed angrily, the atmosphere between the two men begin to tense.
Thinking a good show was about to start, the crowd moved back to make space for the three main players, bets being placed.
It wasn’t who’d win or lose that was bet on. The bet was—would the two fight today? Would Mozun nip this in the bud immediately?
About half believed that Mozun, with his temperament, would absolutely not allow his authority to be challenged. Liu Meng was bound to slaughtered on the spot.
The other half was convinced that Mozun, in order to preserve his poise before his lover, might play at being a gentleman and not touch someone so much weaker.
However, everyone bet wrong.
For the confrontation was broken by the receiving of sudden information.
An exceedingly important message had been sent, and a mutant had rushed over to Mozun. Then, seeing the situation and afraid of provoking an already irate Mozun, the mutant informed Wu Xingyun in a hushed tone.
“Wu Yun, there’s word from Qinglong, saying that yes, he’s got news of those people.”
“What people?” Not thinking, Wu Xingyun asked: “Is it —- base?”
“No, from that time……Those who left in Noah’s Ark. They call themselves the Federation,” the mutant told Wu Xingyun.
For a second Wu Xingyun stared blankly, before stepping forward and hurriedly dragging Mozun away.
And the surrounding bettors understood at that moment—Mozun would lose, for his lover still cared about the beautiful youth in his heart. Look at that—in order that the lovely young man not be harmed, Wu Yun had bravely intervened at the pivotal point, removing the threat.
Getting pulled along by Wu Xingyun, Mozun asked as they walked: “What’s the matter, what’s going on?”
Wu Xingyun stopped his footsteps: “Ye Fan, there’s news of Noah’s Ark.”
“What?!” Mozun couldn’t believe what he was hearing, “What news? What are they doing now?”
Shaking his head to show he didn’t know, they continued on to the mutant who’d reported to Wu Xingyun. The mutant was acting somewhat dazed: “The message is from Qinglong.”
With two steps, Mozun pulled Wu Xingyun along with into the contact room. There the deciphered telegram lay quietly on the table.
The content brief, it read: “Mozun, today I received news from space. I’ve learned that the Noah’s Ark that left the earth did not go far, and they have been detained on this planet’s moon these past years. I have just established communication with them. There are things we should discuss. I hope you can come to visit me at my location.”
Wu Xingyun and Mozun exchanged a look. For this news truly was astonishing.
Both of them had always believed that Noah’s Ark must have long sailed away into the boundless universe, their destination the distant stars. Who could expect they hadn’t chosen even Mars or Venus as a temporary home, but had been lingering on the moon this entire time?
What had they been doing up on the moon? They hadn’t left, so what was their situation? Now all of a sudden they contacted the Earth……for what?
Speculating with each other for a long time, Mozun and Wu Xingyun came up with multiple surmises, though in the end there the answers remained elusive.
They did immediately respond to Dai Rong, letting him know that they would promptly set out for his territory.
Dai Rong had more advanced messaging capabilities, and he was also more familiar with communication protocols from before the last days. At his base, they’d be able to judge the state of affairs more quickly and formulate countermeasures.
Mozun and Wu Xingyun prepared to set off that night. As was customary, Liu Meng, who’d only just provoked the Night Shard, managed the entire logistics of the operation.
Choosing ten mutants to go forward with him, Mozun also had three new communication points temporarily established in order to ensure channels between the two sides stayed unobstructed.
Nine years before, in order to survive, Ye Fan and Wu Xingyun had walked around for three months, experiencing a great deal of trouble, and even almost dying, before meeting up with Luo Ying. For their own safety, they’d had to circle around the forest while trying evade attacks from mutant animals. The bitter taste of those circumstances, only those who’d experienced could understand.
Now the two men went down the same road again, yet the entire march forward had transformed.
Mozun drew a straight line on the map and proceeded without fear. Those mutant animals that possessed higher intelligence, seeing the Night Shard coming, fled before him, hiding themselves away. Yet some creatures that Mozun had beaten before surrendered themselves, willing to become beasts of burden.
Choosing a mammoth horse to carry them, in less than an hour the group crossed the once horrific, deadly forest and were on the edge of the Gobi desert.
While in the desert, Wu Xingyun couldn’t help thinking of how Ye Fan and himself had set out that long-past year. Wu Xingyun had been stowed in a metal box, carried on Ye Fan’s back during the arduous journey.
Wu Xingyun had looked for that metal box, only to find it half-destroyed, eroded by sand and wind, a nest of beetles harbored inside what was left.
Four hours later, the desert behind them, they’d reached the origin place of Qinglong’s first tribe, the northwest base where Wu Xingyun and Ye Fan had once lived.
神出鬼没 [shén chū guǐ mò]
come and go like a shadow; act swiftly and wittingly; alert and quick; divinely appearing and demonically vanishing
DPM Chapter 78
Translated by Snowfall77
The gossip of Liu Meng actually challenging the Night Shard spread quickly. Everyone kept an eye out, wanting to catch the drama, see just how Mozun would deal with this threat.
Contrary to expectations, Mozun was not stingy with Liu Meng, readily teaching him practices. And he let Wu Xingyun school Liu Meng on science and engineering.
But still more surprisingly, in the process of studying, Liu Meng thoroughly exposed his weak point.
Liu Meng himself hadn’t anticipated that he had no talent for cultivation whatsoever.
Despite endless striving day and night, he remained ordinary. Not only did he fail catch up with Mozun’s level, even reaching the mid-level of Mozun’s subordinates was hard to attain.
Although discouraged for a long time, Liu Meng pulled himself together and focused on making full use of his actual talents—an astonishing skill for overall planning and administration.
In order to become capable as soon as possible, he expended great effort into his learning. When he was sixteen years old, Liu Meng had already entered Mozun’s ranks, having officially joined the Demon Army.
With Liu Meng taking charge of all logistics and management, people and territories were handled in an extremely orderly manner.
Never mind that over the years, he’d also grown rapidly physically. No longer the small child, he’d become a young man with a perfect face, like a deity’s masterpiece. With that beauty, paired with his long silver hair, who knew how many people’s hearts he’d provoked?
On his seventeenth birthday alone, more than a dozen people confessed to him, men and women, young and old.
Mozun and Wu Xingyun also attended his birthday party. By that time, the thick Saer fog that blanketed the world had scattered away, though there were still numerous mutant animals. Well-maintained boundaries had been built however, and the city was a very secure area. Gentle and slowly-reproducing plants grew there, while soldiers formed a defensive circle, preventing any monster from invading.
Xi’an was still the center of Mozun’s territory, and where he’d always lived. Although he’d go elsewhere if need be, to provide assistance or settle disputes.
No longer the ruin it had been, Xi’an had been restored to civilization’s standards before the end times. Streets were neatly paved with gravel or cement, the immense city wall towered into the sky, while houses tidily lined up. The hibiscus garden prospered. All of it demonstrating that mutated humanity had made it through the roughest part, and were now able to start developing and expanding.
Liu Meng’s seventeenth birthday banquet was held in the gardens. He had on a smiling expression, sitting like an exquisite statue in the center of the hall, people continuously coming up to congratulate him.
Not at all enthusiastic about everyone crowding in on him, Liu Meng was nevertheless mild and polite. A mutant a year older availed himself of the opportunity to declare his feelings, offering as a token the fangs of a giant python from the seas that he’d killed three months earlier.
Staring blankly as he was put on the spot, Liu Meng was then besieged with the attenders mischievously chanting in unison: “Together! Together!”
Ever helpful, Mozun excitedly joined in: “Together! Together!”
He was twenty-nine now, and years of being at the pinnacle had given him an overpoweringly intimidating aura. And the endless practice, the building of his power, made him emanate danger from head to foot.
Yet now, mingled with the crowd, he seemed like a child joining in on the fun, the grin on his face not much changed from the young man Wu Xingyun had met ten years ago.
When Liu Meng’s gaze suddenly landed on Mozun hugging Wu Xingyun as he enthusiastically called out, the smile on Liu Meng’s face slowly fell away.
He gradually made his way to Mozun, the other people making room.
Facing Mozun, Liu Meng had on a determined yet calm expression. Mozun stopped his chant, now behaving like the elder he was, and told Liu Meng: “That young man is pretty good, a warrior of the new generation. You should seriously consider him.”
Liu Meng gave a slight laugh, not answering. Instead he looked to Wu Xingyun, his eyes filled with mixed unspeakable emotions.
Admiration, longing, adoration, and even reverence.
“Wu Yun,” Liu Meng asked, “Only one more year and I’ll be eighteen. If the Night Shard dies then, will you be brokenhearted?”
Embarrassment rolled over Wu Xingyun. He’d long forgotten Liu Meng’s confession from years before. Considering it as a child’s sentiment, he’d never expected that Liu Meng would still carry it in his heart.
“Mozun will not die,” Wu Xingyun said, “He is immortal.”
“Heh……” Liu Meng smiled and fixed his eyes back on Mozun: “Don’t be too complacent, I’ll turn eighteen soon. At that time……I’ll formally challenge you!”
A great sigh came from the crowd, and those who didn’t know about the past were quickly brought up to speed.
Definitely no one thought highly of Liu Meng’s chances. His strength wasn’t remotely close to Mozun’s level.
Hearsay had it that it took Liu Meng a whole day to just kill an usual mutated animal at the city outskirts. Whereas Mozun’s martial force was ‘divinely appearing and demonically vanishing,’ a fathomless power. It was said he had no rivals on the Earth. Some claimed they’d seen Mozun climb Mount Everest in three minutes, and jumping from there, almost breaking through the atmosphere.
What suspense could there be in such duel?
Liu Meng’s challenge was tantamount to an egg throwing itself against a rock.
Knowing this, Mozun raised an eyebrow, smiling: “Not bad. I’ll wait for it. But you should know, even if you defeat me, you’ll never get what you want.”
Liu Meng’s face flushed angrily, the atmosphere between the two men begin to tense.
Thinking a good show was about to start, the crowd moved back to make space for the three main players, bets being placed.
It wasn’t who’d win or lose that was bet on. The bet was—would the two fight today? Would Mozun nip this in the bud immediately?
About half believed that Mozun, with his temperament, would absolutely not allow his authority to be challenged. Liu Meng was bound to slaughtered on the spot.
The other half was convinced that Mozun, in order to preserve his poise before his lover, might play at being a gentleman and not touch someone so much weaker.
However, everyone bet wrong.
For the confrontation was broken by the receiving of sudden information.
An exceedingly important message had been sent, and a mutant had rushed over to Mozun. Then, seeing the situation and afraid of provoking an already irate Mozun, the mutant informed Wu Xingyun in a hushed tone.
“Wu Yun, there’s word from Qinglong, saying that yes, he’s got news of those people.”
“What people?” Not thinking, Wu Xingyun asked: “Is it —- base?”
“No, from that time……Those who left in Noah’s Ark. They call themselves the Federation,” the mutant told Wu Xingyun.
For a second Wu Xingyun stared blankly, before stepping forward and hurriedly dragging Mozun away.
And the surrounding bettors understood at that moment—Mozun would lose, for his lover still cared about the beautiful youth in his heart. Look at that—in order that the lovely young man not be harmed, Wu Yun had bravely intervened at the pivotal point, removing the threat.
Getting pulled along by Wu Xingyun, Mozun asked as they walked: “What’s the matter, what’s going on?”
Wu Xingyun stopped his footsteps: “Ye Fan, there’s news of Noah’s Ark.”
“What?!” Mozun couldn’t believe what he was hearing, “What news? What are they doing now?”
Shaking his head to show he didn’t know, they continued on to the mutant who’d reported to Wu Xingyun. The mutant was acting somewhat dazed: “The message is from Qinglong.”
With two steps, Mozun pulled Wu Xingyun along with into the contact room. There the deciphered telegram lay quietly on the table.
The content brief, it read: “Mozun, today I received news from space. I’ve learned that the Noah’s Ark that left the earth did not go far, and they have been detained on this planet’s moon these past years. I have just established communication with them. There are things we should discuss. I hope you can come to visit me at my location.”
Wu Xingyun and Mozun exchanged a look. For this news truly was astonishing.
Both of them had always believed that Noah’s Ark must have long sailed away into the boundless universe, their destination the distant stars. Who could expect they hadn’t chosen even Mars or Venus as a temporary home, but had been lingering on the moon this entire time?
What had they been doing up on the moon? They hadn’t left, so what was their situation? Now all of a sudden they contacted the Earth……for what?
Speculating with each other for a long time, Mozun and Wu Xingyun came up with multiple surmises, though in the end there the answers remained elusive.
They did immediately respond to Dai Rong, letting him know that they would promptly set out for his territory.
Dai Rong had more advanced messaging capabilities, and he was also more familiar with communication protocols from before the last days. At his base, they’d be able to judge the state of affairs more quickly and formulate countermeasures.
Mozun and Wu Xingyun prepared to set off that night. As was customary, Liu Meng, who’d only just provoked the Night Shard, managed the entire logistics of the operation.
Choosing ten mutants to go forward with him, Mozun also had three new communication points temporarily established in order to ensure channels between the two sides stayed unobstructed.
Nine years before, in order to survive, Ye Fan and Wu Xingyun had walked around for three months, experiencing a great deal of trouble, and even almost dying, before meeting up with Luo Ying. For their own safety, they’d had to circle around the forest while trying evade attacks from mutant animals. The bitter taste of those circumstances, only those who’d experienced could understand.
Now the two men went down the same road again, yet the entire march forward had transformed.
Mozun drew a straight line on the map and proceeded without fear. Those mutant animals that possessed higher intelligence, seeing the Night Shard coming, fled before him, hiding themselves away. Yet some creatures that Mozun had beaten before surrendered themselves, willing to become beasts of burden.
Choosing a mammoth horse to carry them, in less than an hour the group crossed the once horrific, deadly forest and were on the edge of the Gobi desert.
While in the desert, Wu Xingyun couldn’t help thinking of how Ye Fan and himself had set out that long-past year. Wu Xingyun had been stowed in a metal box, carried on Ye Fan’s back during the arduous journey.
Wu Xingyun had looked for that metal box, only to find it half-destroyed, eroded by sand and wind, a nest of beetles harbored inside what was left.
Four hours later, the desert behind them, they’d reached the origin place of Qinglong’s first tribe, the northwest base where Wu Xingyun and Ye Fan had once lived.
神出鬼没 [shén chū guǐ mò]
come and go like a shadow; act swiftly and wittingly; alert and quick; divinely appearing and demonically vanishing
